Apparently we are sailing on Edge this December!

[mikkelhansen]

We didn't really plan for this, but we felt like we got an offer that was too good to turn down - it may not be, compared to many other offers, but we thought so! My parents-in-law "actively-accidentally" found the December 1, 2019 Eastern Caribbean (FLL-San Juan-Tortola-Philipsburg-FLL) sailing at a nice rate which included grats and the classic beverage package, but after a bit of research on various TA websites I found an even better deal for them - and it ended up with me and my wife going as well!

A GTY cat. 11 deluxe inside with prepaid grats, 300$ OBC ("Sail Plus" perks) and additionally 100$ OBC (TA perk) at $ 2,191.90 total for my wife and me. The TA doesn't have anymore cat. 11 at this group rate, so we were lucky to get the last!

A GTY cat. 1B deluxe veranda with Classic Beverage Package, 300$ OBC ("Sail Plus" perks) and additionally prepaid grats (TA perk) at 3,411.90 total for my parents-in-law. The TA still has this group rate, and strangely now with a specific stateroom number - but only one stateroom left.

On top of that, we snatched some quite cheap plane tickets (especially seeing that this is the weekend after Thanksgiving, which, however, we don't celebrate in Denmark/Europe) from our local airport via Frankfurt to Miami, booked with United, but flown by Lufthansa. LH themselves strangely didn't have any regular Economy tickets left, only Economy Flex, but United had regular Economy tickets left.

We were a bit nervous about booking with a US TA and us being from Europe, but I called the TA before booking to assure that we would indeed receive all the advertised perks, and that there were no other restrictions on booking from outside US/CA. Booking went smooth and initial booking confirmation was received instantly, and a revised confirmation with our chosen Sail Plus perks should arrive within 48 hours. So far, so good.

 

We sailed on Equinox in January (MIA-San Juan-Charlotte Amalie- Samaná (originally Punta Cana) -Nassau-MIA, and had already booked another cruise on Equinox in January 2021 (Western Caribbean), and didn't really plan on going again in-between, but at our recent wedding we received a travel gift card from my parents-in-law at ~750$, which actually meant that we could afford this cruise in December as well.

My parents-in-law have cruised four times with Celebrity thus far, but like my wife and I not on Edge yet, so both my wife and I and my parents-in-law are very excited to get "the Edge vibe".

 

By the way, it seemed that we couldn't choose any specific stateroom number for any of the TA's group block offers, only if we chose a standard/full-rate pricing. Is that normal? Ie., when booking in a group block, you would be assigned a GTY stateroom? Our previous and upcoming Equinox booking were both made directly with the Scandinavian Celebrity office, hence we received our stateroom number at time of booking, so I don't know if the GTY stateroom is normal procedure when booking in group blocks.

[kat228]

Have fun! I have no comments on GTY staterooms for group rates, but we booked a GTY for our cruise because the deal was too good to pass up and I have no regrets. (17 days to go!)

 

I will say that the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is a FANTASTIC time to travel in the US, especially in Florida and heading south. We usually look to do an all-inclusive during that time frame because there are low crowds, you can get some great deals, and the weather is usually beautiful (it can be a little chilly for my Florida-blood, but coming from anywhere north, it's VERY nice!!)

Edited June 5, 2019 by kat228

[Mike981]

Have a great cruise.

Our family has used the time after Thanksgiving as a great time to visit Disney. 

[vtcruising]

Congrats on your good deals! The insides on the Edge look very nice, with nice bathrooms. The Cat 11 insides look to be all way forward. Have you seen pictures of the 1B's? They are all way forward or way aft. Some do have some obstructions from window washing equipment - they have a round port hole type balcony opening (hull balcony) - the balconies are small, but a nice way to have a balcony on the Edge for a lower price (they have 2 chairs and a small table). The living area looks very nice, with great bathrooms.

 

Porthole balcony in the 1B's (and 1A's):

 

At that price, I would be happy with either cabin! Just being on the Edge is a treat - so many new eating venues, beautiful art and lots to do. I have been on 4 Edge cruises (some short pre-cruises) and have more booked. Enjoy!!

 

 

[mikkelhansen]

3 hours ago, vtcruising said:

Congrats on your good deals!

Thanks, we think it's a great deal! We actually re-considered and changed our two perks in the cat. 11 to 300$ OBC and classic beverage packages instead of prepaid grats (we hope to be able to convert the CBPs to premium non-alcoholic packages when onboard - reading from other threads this should be possible without too many problems.)

 

3 hours ago, vtcruising said:

The insides on the Edge look very nice, with nice bathrooms. The Cat 11 insides look to be all way forward

They do indeed look very nice, and we are excited to experience them. Forward isn't a problem for us, on our last Equinox sailing we were also in cat 11 on deck 7, almost completely forward. Cat 11 on Edge seems to be deck 7 as well.

 

3 hours ago, vtcruising said:

Have you seen pictures of the 1B's? They are all way forward or way aft. Some do have some obstructions from window washing equipment - they have a round port hole type balcony opening (hull balcony) - the balconies are small, but a nice way to have a balcony on the Edge for a lower price (they have 2 chairs and a small table). The living area looks very nice, with great bathrooms.

 

Porthole balcony in the 1B's (and 1A's):

Thanks for the photo - I will show it to my parents-in-law! They are aware that 1Bs may be (ie. probably are) with obstructed views, but they wanted more than just an OV, but still without paying a fortune. So the 1B on the group rate was their choice.

[C-Dragons]

Congratulations on your upcoming Edge cruise! I hope you enjoy the ship as much as we did on our two cruises. 😊

[cruise47]

Sounds liked a great deal to me. Enjoy your cruise.

[Silkroad]

Congratulations on getting such a great deal! We had a wonderful time on Edge. Enjoy😊

[bighairtexan]

OP: I"m apologizing in advance.   TOTALLY not on topic so it may be pulled but I did a double take, when reading the OP's "name" as my son's Father in law is named Mikkel Hansen. Not a name you see often in Houston (I mean the Mikkel)

[mikkelhansen]

11 hours ago, cruise47 said:

Sounds liked a great deal to me. Enjoy your cruise.

 

10 hours ago, Silkroad said:

Congratulations on getting such a great deal! We had a wonderful time on Edge. Enjoy😊

Thanks to you both!

 

5 hours ago, bighairtexan said:

OP: I"m apologizing in advance.   TOTALLY not on topic so it may be pulled but I did a double take, when reading the OP's "name" as my son's Father in law is named Mikkel Hansen. Not a name you see often in Houston (I mean the Mikkel)

That's funny! Is your son's father-in-law by any chance of Nordic/Danish decent? Mikkel is a very popular boys name here in Denmark, I actually believe it has been in the top 10 of newborn boys names every year for the last 30-35 years. I'm from 1989 myself, just turned 30 last month.

I recently got married and actually changed my last name from Hansen, but Mikkel Hansen itself is a very normal name, currently ~1150 people in Denmark are called that (out of ~5,7 million people). We also have a very famous handball player named Mikkel Hansen.

Hansen is the second-most used last name in Denmark, only superseded by Jensen.

Edited June 6, 2019 by mikkelhansen

[bighairtexan]

8 hours ago, mikkelhansen said:

 

Thanks to you both!

 

That's funny! Is your son's father-in-law by any chance of Nordic/Danish decent? Mikkel is a very popular boys name here in Denmark, I actually believe it has been in the top 10 of newborn boys names every year for the last 30-35 years. I'm from 1989 myself, just turned 30 last month.

I recently got married and actually changed my last name from Hansen, but Mikkel Hansen itself is a very normal name, currently ~1150 people in Denmark are called that (out of ~5,7 million people). We also have a very famous handball player named Mikkel Hansen.

Hansen is the second-most used last name in Denmark, only superseded by Jensen.

Interesting! He's the only Mikkel I've ever met here in the States.  (Pronounced MICK-el)  His father's family was indeed Danish as I recall.  You'd know he was Nordic just to look at him with his fair hair (well now it's grey) and blue blue eyes!   I have no idea if he cruises but when I saw your name I had to make sure he wasn't posting on CC!!  When I saw DENMARK instead of HOUSTON I was PRETTTTY sure you aren't my son's Father in law (and the fact that you were born in 1989!! haha)

[mikkelhansen]

43 minutes ago, bighairtexan said:

Interesting! He's the only Mikkel I've ever met here in the States.  (Pronounced MICK-el)  His father's family was indeed Danish as I recall.  You'd know he was Nordic just to look at him with his fair hair (well now it's grey) and blue blue eyes!   I have no idea if he cruises but when I saw your name I had to make sure he wasn't posting on CC!!  When I saw DENMARK instead of HOUSTON I was PRETTTTY sure you aren't my son's Father in law (and the fact that you were born in 1989!! haha)

MICK-el is the correct Danish pronunciation. Many non-Danes pronounce it exactly as one would pronunce Michael in English ("MAI-kel"), so I'm quite used to being called Michael when speaking with people who only speak eg. English or German!

To my knowledge, I don't have any kids, neither in Denmark, Houston nor anywhere else! 😉

[mikkelhansen]

Can anybody confirm this claim in the smallprint on the 100$ OBC bonus offer from the TA: "Bonus credit cannot be used towards onboard service charges"?

Ie., I would not be able to pay gratuities out of my 100$ TA OBC, only out of my 300$ perk OBC?

Or could this just be a standard text the TA puts on all their bonus OBC offers, so it would fit on more "strict" cruise lines?

 

I had planned on using about 200$ of the perk OBC for excursions etc., and then leave about 100$ perk OBC together with the 100$ TA OBC and pay the grats from those (grats are 203$ total) when onboard, but that's not possible then?